Chimps have for the first time been shown to pass knowledge from one individual to the next with nearly perfect accuracy through several “generations” of teacher and learner. This ability means that these apes have one of the key skills needed to create and maintain cultural differences between groups.
It has been known for many years that different groups of wild chimps behave differently, but it remained uncertain whether these behaviours represent adaptations to subtly different conditions or different traditions inherited culturally within each group. To find out, Victoria Horner, a primate behaviourist at the University of St Andrews in…
